The invention relates to a filling level sensor for generating electrical signals as a function of a filling level of a fluid in a container, having a bracket which is mounted on a carrier part in a pivotable and axially nondisplaceable fashion and which activates a regulator as a function of its adjustment angle, having a lever wire attached to the bracket and fitted with a float, and having an axial guide arranged at a distance from the pivot axis of the bracket.
Such filling level sensors are used in current motor vehicles, for example, for determining a filling level of fuel in a fuel container, and are known from practice. Here, the bracket has, as an axial guide, a hook for engaging behind a carrier part collar which is arranged at a distance from the bearing. Forces which are transmitted from the float to the lever wire and thus to the bracket are, as a result, supported in the region of the pivot axis and of the axial guide. The regulator is designed as a potentiometer with a slideway arranged on the carrier part and a sliding contact which is attached to the bracket and is prestressed against the slideway. The axial guidance of the bracket ensures that a constant distance is maintained between the bracket and the carrier part, and thus that there is an envisaged degree of prestress of the sliding contact against the slideway.
A disadvantage with the known filling level sensor is that as a result of the hook for the axial guidance the bracket is designed as a component which is difficult to produce using injection molding technology. Furthermore, in the known filling level sensor, connection points of the lever wire to the bracket are very highly stressed by forces acting on the float. This requires the lever wire to be attached to the bracket in a structurally demanding and cost-intensive way (FR 2,661,497; FR 2,656,419). The invention is based on the problem of designing a filling level sensor of the type mentioned at the beginning in such a way that it is of the simplest possible design and is as cost-effective as possible to produce.
This problem is achieved according to the invention by virtue of the fact that the guide has an apron which is arranged on the carrier part and engages over the lever wire.
As a result of this design, forces which are transmitted from the float to the lever wire are supported in the region of the lever wire by the apron so that the connection of the lever wire to the bracket is stressed to a particularly low degree. The bracket does not require a hook for the axial guidance and is therefore of particularly simple design. Since all the elements of the axial guide are arranged on the carrier part, the bracket is very simple to produce using injection molding technology. As a result, the filling level sensor according to the invention is particularly cost-effective.